Generously reposted from Points of Inflection, by PA IPL board member John Roe. Follow the list of links to more of his reflections.
I’ve been reading the Papal Encyclical on the environment – or rather, as Pope Francis calls it, “on care for our common home”. I have never tried to read a papal letter before so I did not know what to expect. It’s certainly a lengthy document – and wide-ranging! Perhaps a quick tour through the table of contents will be a place to start.
The Pope begins with the most wide-ranging appeal, set in the context of his predecessors, of the Patriarch of the Eastern Church, of Saint Francis, and of the whole human family in its “common home”:
I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.